Maryland Public Television
Background Maryland Public Television is a PBS affiliate located in Owings Mills, Maryland. 1st Logo (1969-1971) Logo: At the start of the program we see an early heptagon in gold and black, as the text "Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting" appears below. At the end of the program, we see the text "Presented by Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting". FX/SFX: The logo fading in. Music/Sounds: The opening/closing theme to the show. Availability: Was seen on Stories of Maryland, and the first season of Hodgepodge Lodge. Scare Factor: None. 2nd Logo (1971-1976) Nickname: "Heptagon I" Logo: On a black background, seven blue multi-lined heptagons zoom out, then one zooms in. As one stops in the center of the screen, the words The Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting fades in below. The heptagon glows different colors, then we fade to black. FX/SFX: The heptagons zooming out; the heptagon glowing various colors. Cheesy Factor: Very early Scanimate effects. Music/Sounds: A French horn that plays seven notes followed by announcer's voice saying "Pre-recorded at the studios of the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting." On Hodgepodge Lodge, a child announces the tag. Variant: In the 1972 documentary, Artist of Savitria, the seven notes are played by a harp, followed by announcer and MPT mainstay Alec Webb saying, "A production of the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting." Availability: Extinct. It was seen on 1972-1976 episodes of Wall $treet Week, and 1971-1976 episodes of Hodgepodge Lodge, and Aviation Weather. Scare Factor: Low. 3rd Logo (1976-1980) Nickname: "Heptagon II" Logo: On a black background, a light-flare trail of a heptagon much like before, only with a different pattern, zooms and spins out to the center of the screen. When it stops, it comes into focus, and the text, arranged like this: maryland center for public broadcasting appears below via a flash. The heptagon starts out blue, but then it fades to red, and finally pink. FX/SFX: The heptagon trail zooming out... Cheesy Factor: ...which is cheesy even by late 1970s standards. Music/Sounds: A Moog synth jingle with an announcer saying "From the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting.". Availability: Extremely rare. Seen on shows from this period, such as Wall $treet Week. Scare Factor: Low. The announcer's voice may catch you off-guard. 4th Logo (1980-1984, A) Nickname: "Heptagon III" Logo: On a black background, two red lines merge from the bottom and top of the screen in the center, which flips into a gold heptagon that spins around a few times, flashing many rainbow colors before stopping in the very middle, emitting trails of light from either side. Then the text from the previous logo appears below, in a much smaller flash. The background then turns blue afterwards. FX/SFX: The converging lines, the spinning heptagon, the light trails, the text appearing. Cheesy Factor: The spinning looks pretty cheap. Music/Sounds: A jaunty jingle, featuring a piccolo and xylophone. Availability: Seen on programs at the time, notably A.M. Weather,'' Wall $treet Week'', and MotorWeek. Scare Factor: Low 5th Logo (1980-1984, B) Nicknames: "M"n "M TV" (Not the network), "The M in the TV Set" Logo: On a black background, a glass model of a rectangle with a roundish "M" inside zooms outs from the right, flipping into place. The text "maryland itv" wipes in below. Variant: On Consumer Connection, there is an in-credit version in which the logo in white fades in and "MARYLAND ITV" and a copyright date slide up from below. FX/SFX: The logo zooming out and flipping. Music/Sounds: A mellow horn tune described as "elevator music". Availability: Seen on many shows of this period, like W$W, MotorWeek, Consumer Connection, and Hodgepodge Lodge. Scare Factor: Minimal for the regular variant, and none for the in-credit variant. 6th Logo (1984-1986) Logo: Against a black BG with a gray border, a box displaying an abstract map of Maryland with various shades of purple with "MARYLAND" above it in heliotrope zooms in rapidly. Then, the map morphs into the letters "iTV" in rose.Maryland Public TV (Early '80s?) "State Department of Education" and "Division of Instructional Television" appear below. FX/SFX: The zooming in of the map, the map morphing. Cheesy Factor: The morphing is really choppy. Music/Sounds: None, or a frenetic orchestral theme. Availability: Extinct. Scare Factor: Low. 7th Logo (1984-1986) Nickname: "Green MPT" Logo: On a teal background, we see the new (at the time) MPT logo, with MPT in a futuristic font (called "Stop"), and colored green, over the text "Maryland Public Television" in pale green-yellow. They both zoom in slowly, and when they stop, the MPT logo shines. FX/SFX: The zooming of the logo and the shine. Cheesy Factor: The zoom-in is kinda rough. Music/Sounds: A generic chime fanfare, ending in a flourish. Availability: This was the most short-lived of MPT logos, so it's kind of a hard find. It's consider to be a placeholder logo. Scare Factor: None. 8th Logo (1986-1992) Nickname: "MPT in Space", "My Public TV", "Gold MPT" Logo: The letters "MPT", in the same font as before, but colored gold, zoom out and flip around on a purple/black space BG with stars brightly shining. It settles in front of a medium navy blue globe with several light streaks shooting across it at an angle. Then, "Maryland Public Television" also in gold is wiped in by what appears to be E.T.'s glowing finger Well, it's really a pink-colored laser beam. Variants: * A long variant, which was used for local promos, showed the channel numbers and areas in which MPT served zooming across a close-up of the globe before the camera zoomed out and the usual logo animation continued as usual, with "Capture the World", in gold script, appearing above. An announcer (Alec Webb) says, "This is Maryland Public Television, serving Maryland, Washington D.C., and Northern Virginia. TV worth watching.". This was shown locally. * During the early '90s, the announcer says "This is member-supported MPT. My Public TV.", and "My Public TV" would appear above the textless MPT logo, shining a bit. This was only shown locally. * There is another variant in which "Maryland Public Television" is shown above and "Production" is shown below. * There is another local variant used late in the logo's life in which some lines streak across the bottom of the screen and the station listings flip up on the lines after the network name fades in above. An announcer says "This is member-supported Maryland Public TV, serving Maryland, Washington D.C., and northern Virginia." FX/SFX: Top-notch CGI for 1986! Music/Sounds: A 4-note synth-piano fanfare. The "long" version used a series of synth whooshes ending with three synth chimes and a weird synth flourish. The 4th variant uses a much more mellow synth theme that still contains the "MPT chimes". Sometimes, as a program outro tag, the closing theme would play over. Availability: Pretty much extinct outside of old tapes. Best to check tapes of Wall $treet Week, MotorWeek, AM Weather, 1992-1993 episodes of To The Contrary, and In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs. Scare Factor: Low. 9th Logo (1992-1999) Nicknames: "The Globe", "Tons of Images" Logo: We see a spinning globe against a globe against a sea at sunset between a flag of Maryland and the U.S., among other images. The globe brings forth a silver version of the MPT logo, coming from the right, while at the same time, bringing forth "Maryland Public Television" in the same font as the 1984 logo, but all in caps. When they settle in place, the globe zooms away. "PRODUCTION" fades in below. Often times, a closed caption (CC) bug appears in the lower left corner. Variants: * There is an extended version only used locally. Against the same BG, we see a square with a pattern of the Earth on it, which morphs into a globe, playing the animation from the regular variant. This time, "Putting Maryland First" in Brush Script MT slides in from the top right in gold script, and a list of the stations it serves flashes in below. The MPT logo shines a bit. * Another local version has an announcer saying "This is member-supported MPT.". At the end, "Fulfilling the Promise" in yellow Vivaldi Script font flashes in above in yellow script, and at the same time, the station list flashes in below. The MPT logo shines a bit. * Sometimes, this logo will appear superimposed. FX/SFX: The globe forming & bringing forth the logo, and the background images. Music/Sounds: A three-note synth-chime fanfare, which was also used by RTL in Germany. The local version used an extended version of the music with an announcer saying "This is Maryland Public Television, member-supported TV serving Maryland, Washington D.C., and northern Virginia.". However, it tends to have the closing theme of a show over it as spotted on Kratt's Creatures, Zoboomafoo, 1993-1998 episodes of To The Contrary, and Wimzie's House, just to name a few. Availability: Uncommon. It might be seen if your local PBS station runs older tapes. Scare Factor: Low. 10th Logo (1999-2002) Maryland Public TV (1999-2002) Nickname: "Another Cursive M" Logo: A cursive gold "M" is seen turning into place on the left against a black background, with the flag of Maryland and a model globe spinning. Once it's in place, those images fade out as "A production of Maryland Public Television" fades in below, along with a black map of Maryland with gold outlines. The M shines. Variants: * The background may be of a spinning blue wireframe globe located in the bottom right corner instead. * Sometimes, on Zoboomafoo, this logo can be seen as a static image. FX/SFX: The turning M and other images, and the M shining. Music/Sounds: A three-note piano theme, or the end theme of the show. Music/Sounds Voiceover: Sometimes a voiceover saying from Maryland Public Television Made possible by * Sometime announcer saying A presentation from Maryland Public Television Availability: Can be found on Zoboomafoo, Wall $treet Week, and MotorWeek. Scare Factor: None. 11th Logo (1999-2002) Nickname: "Cursive M" Logo: We see shots of several images relating to Maryland, ending with a Maryland state flag waving. Throughout the logo, you can see a shadow of the cursive M from before. Then, it fades to a black background, where we see the same gold colored M in a cursive font dropping down from the upper-left portion of the screen as a spark flickers below. Once it's in place, "Maryland Public Television" fades in below, and two flares, colored pink and gold, slide in Maryland Public TV (1999-2002)and spin around the logo. As a local station ID, station information fades in below. Variant: There is a shorter variant of this logo. FX/SFX: The "M" flying into place. Music/Sounds: Usually has the closing theme playing over, but on Bloomberg Morning News, it has a synth-guitar tune, sometimes coupled with announcer saying "This is member-supported MPT, serving Maryland, northern Virginia, and Washington D.C.". Music/Sounds Variant: On some MPT cooking shows using the 10th logo piano theme. Availability: Only used locally, and can be found as an alternate for the previous logo. BMN and Wimzie's House both had this logo. The 10th logo variant using some MPT cooking shows at the end followed by American Public Television logo. Scare Factor: None. Category:PBS Category:PBS member stations Category:Television Category:United States Category:Closing Logos Group Wikia Category:Vanity & Miscellaneous Category:TV channels